A 48-year-old businessman, Christian Ifeanyi Ogbuji, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, for attempting to import 817 wraps of cocaine. The illicit drug, weighing 19.40 kilograms, is valued at a staggering N4.65 billion. Ogbuji’s arrest marks a shocking return to crime just 16 months after his previous conviction for smuggling cocaine.
Ogbuji was initially apprehended in May 2023 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for ingesting 93 pellets of cocaine weighing nearly 2 kilograms. He was convicted in July 2023 and sentenced to two years imprisonment, a sentence he avoided by paying a N3 million fine. In addition to the fine, the court ordered the forfeiture of his seized drugs and passport.
Despite his conviction, Ogbuji resumed his criminal activities and was caught on September 18, 2024, at the Lagos airport during inward clearance for an Ethiopian Airlines flight. Officers became suspicious when Ogbuji attempted to sneak a black backpack into his already cleared luggage. A secondary search revealed 817 large wraps of cocaine, concealed in the backpack, which had been smuggled by several drug traffickers in Addis Ababa.
Read Also: NDLEA Seizes 25 Million Pills of Tapentadol, 350,000 Bottles of Codeine Syrup at Lagos Port
Read Also: NDLEA Arrests Multiple Drug Traffickers in Major Crackdown, Seizes Large Quantities of Narcotics
The NDLEA described Ogbuji as an unrepentant kingpin in a West African drug cartel with links to Brazil, Ethiopia, and several countries in the region. NDLEA Chairman, Mohamed Buba Marwa praised the vigilance of the officers involved, calling the seizure a major blow to international drug cartels attempting to establish operations in Nigeria.
Ogbuji is now set to face further legal consequences as investigations continue into his role within the drug network.